Short Tales of Joseph Conrad

The author of Heart of Darkness and Lord Jim also wrote brilliant works of short fiction. His stories, ironic and penetrating, expose the dark recesses of the human character that make us squirm, for we recognize them in ourselves.

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Publisher's Summary

The author of Heart of Darkness and Lord Jim also wrote brilliant works of short fiction. His stories, ironic and penetrating, expose the dark recesses of the human character that make us squirm, for we recognize them in ourselves. The eight stories in this collection include "Karain: A Memory", "The Idiots", "The Lagoon", "The Tale", "Prince Roman", "Amy Foster", "Falk: A Reminiscence", and "The Warrior's Soul".

I agree with much of the other comments concerning the prestation of this book. . . the sound quality is bad and the reader offers a less than stellar performance. But beyond this my greatest gripe is with Audible. . . rather than taking the time to seperate the download by stories (and it really wouldn't take much time to do it) they settled on putting in random breaks. Such a half hearted effort (especially with a compilation of short stories) left me frustrated and unsatisfied. Sorry Mr. Conrad, you really didn't deserve this!

What ever made Wolfram Kandinsky think he could read audio, and what ever made Blackstone hire him? I have never bought an audio book of his where I didn't have to fight the urge to erase it, and several times I have. But I love Conrad so much I took the chance I could enjoy it in spite of his affected, nasal, irritating style. Alas, even Conrad can't survive such treatment.

The voice used to read the words of Joseph Conrad is totally inappropriate. It is an American voice, but this could have been acceptable if some effort had een made to select a good voice. This one is thin, nasal and very irritating. I can barely manage to continue listening.

What made the experience of listening to Short Tales of Joseph Conrad the most enjoyable?

both content and reader's interpretation

What did you like best about this story?

there were many of them. i liked Karain very much for its depiction of the main character.

Which scene was your favorite?

the final scene in Karain.

If you could take any character from Short Tales of Joseph Conrad out to dinner, who would it be and why?

the narrator, which is these stories really is Conrad because he was a part of the world he writes about in the stories.

Any additional comments?

i highly recommend this reader. he is quite different from my usual favorites -- he does not for example do dialog particularly well -- and at first i didn't like his style. but midway into the first story, i became fascinated with it. usually, a good reader creates something which is both himself or herself and the author's work. Kandinsky did not do that, but instead made me focus on the work itself, on Conrad's words. i felt at times as if while reading the stories, he was at the same time yelling, "look at them, the words, the text! how magnificent!" and making me see them in my mind's eye almost as if for the first time. (over a period of more than fifty years, i've read all of Conrad's stories, some of them many times.) it was this attitude of both enthusiasm and self-effacement which kept me listening to him.

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